Oil and gas play an important role in Africa’s present and future prospects. In South Africa especially, local gas production is expected to grow…
South African Airways welcomes the third Airbus A350-900 to its fleet
South African Airways on Saturday took delivery of its first brand new and third Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
Flown in from Hamburg, Germany this weekend with flight number SA4273, the plane is the first totally new A350 sub-leased by the airline from Air Mauritius.
The plane, sporting tail number ZS-SDE, landed at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International around 10.45pm SAST.
#A350 Air Mauritius ZS-SDE delivery flight from TLS to XFW leased to South African Airlines @A350Blog @A350_Production @Michael18918692 pic.twitter.com/G3qlD2jElp
— Tobi (@Tobias_Gudat) November 18, 2019
South African Airways first announced that it would add four A350-900 planes to its fleet in July. Two have already been delivered, with the final A350-900 set to join its fleet before year-end.
The new twin-engine planes will be deployed on the Johannesburg OR Tambo to New York JFK route, replacing its much older and less efficient quad-engine A340-600s.
South African Airways will lease the A350s for three years.
ZS-SDE’s arrival comes days after a disruptive week-long strike by the airline’s staff came to an end. A number of flights resumed on Saturday, according to data from FlightRadar24.
Feature image: an SAA Airbus A340-600 in Johannesburg in 2010, by Andy Mitchell via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)
